


Like Clockwork

by Starysky205



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Heterochromia Soulmate AU, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, Soulmates, String of Fate, a few have a second au for the sake of my sanity, and will tag warnings there too as necessary, glowing chest soulmate au, not necessarily in this order, other lesser known soulmate aus, power soulmate au, same music soulmate au, shared pain soulmate au, shared skin soulmate au, soulmates give you colors, switched bodies soulmate au, will explain the less obvious ones in the summaries, words on skin soulmate au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:35:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 12,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26618305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starysky205/pseuds/Starysky205
Summary: I think clocks represent this ship very nicely: on the one hand, clocks are complex machines and often associated with something following a set pattern; on the other hand, clocks are used to portray the passage of time, and the inevitable end of all things.Anyway, have a dose of soulmate AUs, all featuring my two favorite boys; titled after the AU so I don’t have to think titles.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Leo Valdez
Kudos: 68





	1. Colors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you haven’t read [Hues of Love](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8791960) by [Madin456](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madin456/pseuds/Madin456), then this is me encouraging you to do it; it uses this same AU, but in a very interesting way.
> 
> Despite the many things this one shares with cannon, this still takes place in a world where TOA never happens; thanks for understanding.

There’s something to be said about fate, that Leo’s soulmate comes to him half-dead, fighting consciousness, and with two people having to keep him standing; and it takes Leo an embarrassing amount of time to realize the things around him are no longer monochrome.

When he does he has to find the right moment to approach Anabeth, who’s the only person in the ship he trusts to be purely factual about this; which is how he learns what the colors he sees are called, Anabeth even gives him a list with names for him to memorize. Later, when he’s more or less certain he won’t be mixing his reds and blues, he leaves it in the crow’s-nest under a weight, for Nico to find; he doesn’t expect the other to approach him about it, but Leo knows it was a mutual thing, because he’s observant enough. 

Not that he can criticize Nico, considering Leo’s perfectly capable of making that first move and maybe talking to him; and not like they have to fall in love or whatever, there are plenty of cases of platonic soulmates in the Argo II alone, like Percy and Grover, Anabeth and Piper, Jason and Reyna. Leo isn’t sure if Frank knows his soulmate, but Leo hopes it’s a platonic bond and not a severed one; like Hazel who lost her soulmate to death, and who is permanently colorblind now.

Anyway, Leo could absolutely approach Nico and be done with this whole deal, but he doesn’t, and Nico doesn’t approach him either; and they more or less avoid each other unless strictly necessary. The only thing they seem to have in common is how much they both care about Hazel, so if it means keeping her alive and well, then they can absolutely work together, and do it well.

Eventually, things get crazy enough that Leo no longer has time to think about the connection he has to Nico di Angelo.

It’s almost comical, how despite all the clear signs that they should circle together, fate seems intent on keeping them separate; not that Nico minds, as he isn’t particularly thrilled over his soulmate. He could’ve been, once upon a time, and he does feels a misplaced sense of guilt over it, over the fact that he isn’t the soulmate Leo was meant to meet; maybe that’s why.

He’s got nothing against Leo per se, the guy’s actually fiercely loyal, willing to do anything for a friend to the point it’s self-sacrificial; but he’s also got a penchant for trouble, and seemingly no thought to mouth filter.

They lose him at one point, and have to dock down the ship because he’s the only one who can fix it in their group; and when he comes back he’s different, as well as hiding something. But Nico doesn’t get to find out what it is, as more and more things happen, and the distance between the two of them becomes abysmal.

And then there’s the actual fight against, Gaea, and Octavian blowing himself up, and the rocket heading towards Leo. Nico feels his death even before his world goes black and white once more; and he is more shaken than makes any sense.

Everything that happens immediately after that is a blur.

Calypso is different in black and white, but Leo never lets this difference affect him, not as he takes her into his arms, nor as he responds to her surprise with relieved humor. They don’t stay in Ogygia much longer than that, as Leo doesn’t know how long he can be there and have this plan still work; and when they’re flying Leo doesn’t have to think about the emptiness sizzling in his veins.

It takes a lot longer to get back to camp than it did to get to Ogygia, but Leo blames his rebirth on that one; he’s all but shaking in his seat when he sees the familiar shape of it in the distance.

Stepping into camp ground feels like getting a weight off his shoulders; and then someone sees them. Somehow, in the middle of the commotion, Nico must have managed to make his way through the campers now surrounding Leo and Calypso; because one moment he’s standing awkwardly next to Calypso, the next he’s collapsing as color comes back to him like an explosion.

His senses go back to normal just in time to see that he wasn’t the only one incredibly affected, which prompts him to make a silent promise that he won’t be doing this a third time. Nico gets himself away from Will, and moves quickly towards Leo; and once they’re close enough he hits him on the top of his head, having grown taller than Leo.

“You’re an idiot”

Leo laughs, chest swirling with emotions, feeling human for the first time since coming back from the dead; he turns to his soulmate with a smile.

“Yeah, definitely”

Nico rolls his eyes and gives him something that could maybe be a smile, before he turns to look at the goddess at Leo’s side; and it’s very telling that Leo momentarily forgot about Calypso.

“Calypso, I’m guessing”

She gives him a tense smile.

“You must be Nico”

He blinks at her and turns back to Leo with a frown.

“You talked about me?”

Leo shrugs, because there really isn’t much to it.

“You’re my soulmate, of course I talked about you”

Nico flushes, looking away.

“Right, come on, there are some people dying to see you”

Leo winces, wrapping his arms around himself.

“Oh man, more hits”

Nico huffs as he walks, Leo follows despite of his tone, as he does deserve it; Calypso follows too, probably. Will also joins them once they clear the group of campers, who are now dispersing, likely to spread word of Leo’s return.

“I can set up a line if you want, only one hit per camper”

Leo notes that Will’s eyebrows have flown into his hair, and can’t help but chuckle at that reaction.  
“Would you?”

Nico turns back to him, Leo gives him a look, Nico huffs again and nods.

“Thanks, that’ll make things easier”

Nico shrugs, and sure, they still have to sit down and have a proper conversation, but this is clear proof that they do actually fall into step with each other as easily as breathing; so Leo thinks they’ll get there eventually, just, at their own pace.


	2. Soul marks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so this is a double au, no gods, but yes to powers; as well as the soulmate thing. Districts instead of cabins, because I refuse to put too much effort on this. 
> 
> Narrator voice: he put too much effort on this.

Before your first meeting with your soulmate, your mark is more of a blurry blob of color, and if you’re of those lucky enough to have a power, that blob would move. There are countless theories of why it does that, each somehow wilder than the previous one, but none actually proven.

Nico’s always been fascinated by his own mark, dancing from spot to spot as he breathed, he’s more than once wondered what it would shape into; it’s been a sort of small spark of light sometimes, when times get rough and his eyes happen to catch on the colors.

The swirl of reds, whites, and blacks was considered ‘cool’ back when he was younger, which had led to Nico hoping for an equally cool soulmate. Nowadays, as he watches the swirl dance around his skin like flames, he has a little more knowledge on how it works, and a better guess of what shape it’ll take.

It’ll have to do with Nico’s powers, as he is of the lucky few to have more than one affinity, darkness and earth, though he has a much better grasp over the dark portion of it; as marks represent both people who have them. He wonders about his soulmate, he hopes they have a power too, watches the swirl and tries to figure out which colors belong to _him_. He does know that much, that it’s a him, because he’s never been interested in girls, and one is supposed to be interested in their soulmate.

And then, in a second, things change, as they tend to do.

Nico breaks his sword, which, given what it’s made of and how deeply tied to Nico’s powers it is, was not something he thought possible; yet here he is, regardless. And since the material it’s made of is magical itself, and since it is as tightly tied to his powers as it is, it can only be fixed by people with the right kind of power; thus how Nico finds himself in the 9th district, looking for a place called Bunker 9.

Finding the place is an adventure in and on itself, and Nico has many a brush with the many mechanics and forgers who work here before someone takes pity on him and gives him proper directions. Bunker 9 turns out to be a hanger-like building housing an immense workshop, but there’s only 4 people who work there, only three of which are actually there as Nico visits; the fourth away getting some materials, according to the college-aged woman that’s now checking his sword.

“You’ll probably meet him soon, little lion has two powers on him, so the academy will snatch him for sure”

The academy was famous for nurturing those born with powers, and magical weapons only work if you have magic yourself, so Nico thinks the connection she makes is fair; even if he’s been studying under his father for years now, and is well ahead of the course proper for his age. The woman is still looking at the sword.

“And it’ll probably be best if I leave this one in his hands, he has the most practice with magic of the four of us”

Nico sighs.

“That would be preferable, yes”

He wants the sword to remain magical after all, which is why he’s here at all, because bunker 9 is the only place with certified power wielders in the 9th district; so he leaves the sword in their care, and finds the closest alleyway in order to shadow-travel back home. It’s not until he’s flopping down in bed that he notices the very still shape in his inner forearm, near the bend of his elbow.

The mark shows two red-hot gears connected by a radius and an ulna, kind of like wheels on a train but not; and then he’s sitting upright, staring at his arm, and realizing he’s met his soulmate today. The mark still moves, only now it isn’t to change spots but rather show this morbid mechanism working as Nico breathes, in tune with his heartbeat, he finds; and while the bones so easily fit his powers, he doesn’t know what to make of the red-hot gears.

His soulmate is a mechanic, that part is easy enough, to have met them in the 9th district it’d be very unlikely that they would be anything else; but the scalding color on the metal throws Nico off.

Leo had always thought the color on his soul mark were mocking him, ok, no, there was a time where he thought them cool, but that was before the fire; the dancing reds in particular made acid rise to his stomach. Once he learned more about his powers, and how they affected his mark, this thought became just a little more solid; as now he’d have a permanent reminder of his worst moment.

So he ignored the mark, even as he makes himself a place both in the ninth district but also into the only workshop with other power users, even as he started gathering friends and growing closer to the people around him. So it doesn’t surprise him that he didn’t see the change sooner, but the shape it took does.

He wonders what it says about his soulmate, the two ivory white bones that are most definitely not to do with Leo or either of his powers, the fact that the mark is still moving, to the rhythm of Leo’s own heart. They’d have to be like him, to have a power, and they have to be someone Leo’s met today; but that doesn’t really help; so he focuses on what the mark tells him, he focuses on the bones.

He figures he can always ask Asher about it next time his ‘family’ gathered in the 11th district, he did still owe Leo for helping him meet his soulmate, as Asher’s taken to his healing powers by storm. Only, once he returns to Bunker 9, Nyssa tells him they have a magical item on their hands, and being that Leo’s the most practiced with his powers, she was assigning it to him; normally he’d be a little cautious about it, but upon seeing the item, a whole ass sword, he immediately agreed.

The blade, though broken badly, was a deep black, so dark it seemed to be absorbing all the light around it, the hilt glimmered regardless, ivory white and crowned with a skull; Stygian iron, Leo recognized immediately, directly from the 13th district, and fully imbued with necrotic magic if the once metal hilt had turned white. He remembered helping someone find Bunker 9, knowing how labyrinthine the ninth district could be, the sword had to belong to them; they had felt powerful, once Leo stopped focusing on the fact that they were attractive.

So maybe he puts more care on fixing the sword than he would’ve normally, not that Leo’s the kind to work half-heartedly anyway, but if he’s right and this is indeed for his soulmate, then he wants to cause a good impression; he’d take pride on a well done job, if nothing else. And if that means using his fire, then Leo is glad for the practice he has controlling it, glad that the flames can be anything other than destructive.

It takes only three days for Leo to finish it, magic and effort combined into the making, and as the new day the shop will be closed, he sleeps through all of it to compensate; even if Asher insists that’s not how it works. When the shop opens again, Leo’s there bright and early, in fresh work clothes, and vibrating energy.

Everything after that is reduced to pieces of seconds, instants in sequence like a movie reel:

Nico enters the shop and is welcomed by a face he can’t shake as familiar even though it hadn’t been there the last time he visited the shop.

Leo smiles as cold flurries around him, following Nico’s entrance, and promptly sets the sword of the counter, proud as he explains how it took him a little doing to work on the metal, but was worth it to keep the magic bond intact. He’s avid with his expressions, getting a little carried away and waving his arms around, arms that are uncovered by his work shirt.

Nico notices first, the matching picture in the stranger’s arm, and feels a little breathless as he takes on them anew just as Leo finishes. He pulls the sleeves of his jacket back, in a bid of impulse, but also because he wants to feel the magic of the sword against his skin, make sure it’s unchanged.

There’s no shower of sparks, or any other sort of showy display, just two matching marks moving at slightly different rhythms, a simple connection between two people fated to connect. Leo looks at Nico and smiles.

“So, I feel like I should introduce myself again, I’m Leo Valdez”

He offers his hand, the left, the same one the mark rests almost proudly on, and Nico matches him immediately with his own.

“Nico di Angelo”

Leo smiles a little brighter at their joined hands, shaking the hold once before releasing it to fish for his phone.

“Would it be too soon to ask for your number?”

A tentative smile forms on Nico’s face at what this action means, a way to take things slow, while still acknowledging their connection.

“No”

And he takes the phone as it’s offered, easily entering his number; and then he takes his sword and his heart skips a beat or two, because not only is the magic still thrumming through the metal, somehow, the weapon feels more powerful than it had ever been.

“Thank you”

He says it because he knows stygian iron and what it’s capable of, and knows what risk Leo took in order to get this result; his soulmate, and here Nico is testing the word out, simply smiles sheepishly.

“Anytime”

He means it too, Nico realizes, as though he had done something simple; and he suddenly understands why this boy could be his soulmate. He fishes out his own phone and offers it, Leo smiles a little brighter, and there’s smoke rising from his ears; and maybe that’s to do with the scalding red on their mark.

“Can I…?”

Leo takes the phone giddily, quickly typing something and then giving it back; and he has a new contact, a simple ‘Leo’ with a wrench emoji. He turns the sword back into the ring it doubles as and slips it back into his hand felling a little more like himself; and if he leaves the shop feeling a little lighter than he has in weeks, then that’s for him to keep.


	3. Instant crush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I’m putting the warning on the summary because I don’t want ppl avoiding this whole thing for a single one-shot; if the secondary au in this doesn’t agree with you, you’re more than allowed to skip it. But please give the other one-shots here a chance.   
> That said, this a soulmate au where upon first contact with your soulmate you become instantly infatuated, which I thought would work even better with the second au for reasons. I could’ve written so much more, actually; like out of all of these I think this one I could turn into a full-fledged story if pushed. 
> 
> Warning: ABO, Omegaverse, alpha/beta/omega dynamics, possessiveness, OoC on purpose.

The way it happens, it almost goes unnoticed, as they are in the middle of a fight, and being that Leo’s fire works better at a distance, it makes sense for Nico to cover him when one of the monsters gets too close; it’s the fact that they both stay stubbornly together that sort of gives it away, but everyone’s a little busy fighting for their lives. When the battle is over and won, when they’re all picking themselves up and checking if anyone needs ambrosia or if it’s just scrapes, when Leo gasps sharply, legs giving up under him, only Nico is already whirling and slowing his descent, growling; that makes it obvious.

It's easy to forget, sometimes, the fact that Leo’s an omega, given that he takes scent blockers, and heats are easy to avoid when you don’t feel safe enough to have them in the first place; but right now, as he effortlessly soothes everyone on the ship, it’s impossible to miss. And Nico, who generally doesn’t fall to alpha stereotypes, immediately drinks on it, curling into Leo like they’re meant to slot together by default; and given the nature of what this is, they are.

Hazel tries to approach them, and though she’d probably be the most likely to survive such a move of all of them, Pipper still stops her with urgency.

“They’re soulmates”

It’s an explanation as much as it is a warning, because first contact with your soulmate makes the regular person clingy, but for alphas in particular, it turns them feral. So while Hazel is Nico’s sister, and Leo’s doing a good job of keeping the alpha calm, there’s no telling what Nico will do if he feels like she’s a threat, or even what he would consider a threat in the first place.

Hazel must realize this, because she nods, taking a step back; from this distance they can watch Leo talking to Nico, but not hear what he’s saying. Eventually though, Nico stands up with Leo on tow, a loud rumbling the only sound he makes; he’s normally quiet, but this is something else entirely.

The situation would be funny, and a little adorable, if it wasn’t for the fact that Leo had collapsed so soon after first contact, sending Nico straight into protective alpha mode; it could be worse though, Leo being an omega has its own advantage in that he can keep the alpha focused on him. It has the side effect of both Percy and Jason staring as though transfixed, and it’s a wonder how either of them stay rooted in place as opposed to following after him. Piper takes no particular offence, and hopes Anabeth doesn’t either, as betas, there’s little they can do against an omega actively trying to get an alpha’s attention; though she’s sure part of it has to do with the bond, and not Leo trying to keep them all safe from a feral Nico.

They all part when the two make their way towards the ship, because Nico has proven himself to be powerful even after spending however long in a poisonous jar with no food or water; and Leo’s absolutely going to get him back to healthy weight now that their bond is active. How receptive of it Nico will be once it’s finished forming is up in the air though; frankly Piper dreaded that they may have a fractured bond headed their way.

But she would take that over a strained bond held together only by the fact that the world needed Leo alive and sane.

Nico felt very relieved over how exhausted he was, because otherwise he’d have attacked both Percy and Jason for the way they’d been looking at _his_ omega; granted it was because Leo was using his scent to keep him in check, but Nico couldn’t fault _his_ soulmate for being a good omega.

It had been a weird sensation, the first contact, one accidental brush of skin against skin during battle, and the sudden anger at the monsters who dared to attack _his_ omega, to push him into using the fire Nico knew he hated; Leo had been similarly affected, sticking close, burning the monsters Nico couldn’t get at with his sword. It had also been fun, to fall into step with someone else, to fight an entire battle back to back without worrying, to have someone trust him no questions asked.

Leo’s been quiet this entire time, save for the soft trilling sound he’s using to coax Nico further inside the ship, towards the med bay; but he doesn’t seem particularly worried about dragging a thought-impaired alpha around. Realistically, the fact that Nico is aware enough to worry about messing the fragile dynamic of the seven means Leo has little to worry about; instinctively, Nico wants to do something to make sure no one takes advantage of _his_ omega’s trusting nature, to keep others away.

Or maybe, Leo’s quiet because he knows Nico can’t process anything beyond ‘keep close’ and ‘keep safe’, paired with a surprisingly tame doze of ‘this is mine now’; omegas are a lot better at the whole soulmate thing anyways. Also, Nico is only extremely thrilled about the fact that he’s connected to the sole omega in the ship, who is also the owner and captain of said ship; and, he’s purring now.

“What’s got you so happy?”

Leo’s voice is soft, like when he’s talking to Festus, which is really nice.

“I have the best soulmate”

Nico gets to hear _his_ omega chuckle at that, and that’s a very pretty sound.

“You’re bond drunk”

The words don’t particularly sound like a compliment, but Leo says them in this pleased tone that sends shivers down Nico’s spine, so he doesn’t actually care. He simply purrs a little louder, to let _his_ omega know he likes the tone.

“It’s gonna be an interesting few days, huh ángel?”

Nico actually full on trills at the pet name, very much pleased, but he needs to make himself clear.

“Wanna court you”

Leo chuckles again, and pulls just far enough that they can look at each other properly.

“Maybe if you ask after the bonding finishes”

Nico’s not particularly fond of the hesitation in _his_ omega’s voice right now; but he can prove himself, and he will. Whatever effect the bond has in him, Nico’s always been infatuated with the idea of soulmates, so he doesn’t think he’ll let this slip through his fingers all that easy; especially when Leo seems just as hopeful about the connection. 


	4. Heterochromia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In case you didn’t know what heterochromia is, it’s a condition where one of your eyes (or part of it, as happens with central heterochromia) has a different color; in this au you wake up at 12 with one eye your natural color and the other your soulmate’s natural eye color. Which sounds easy enough, until you remember how wide the eye color spectrum really is.  
> This was inspired by that one post about math and love stories, specifically the one part about asymptotes. Imagine if I made this one into a series, it’d be them just barely missing each other ever forever, wouldn’t even be angst proper because they know nothing about each other, just frustrating.
> 
> No-gods AU, pole-dancer Leo, hitman Nico. Asher’s from the Devotion series, in case you were wondering.

Leo isn’t sure how he ended up where he is, sharing an apartment with someone four years younger than him, whom he has to make sure actually eats and sleeps in the brief moments they are both in the apartment; which is funny because Asher’s training to be a doctor, and should know better than to skip both meals and sleep, but here they are. Granted, Asher has an aside job at a bookstore to help cover his half of rent; and is kind enough not to judge Leo for his own job.

It’s an easy system, considering Leo works exclusively at night, whilst poor Asher is all over the place; basically, if the boy is up when Leo comes home, he’s allowed to ragdoll him into a bed and force him to sleep. And despite his height, and what little of his body the baggy clothes he uses outside of work will tell you, Leo absolutely has the strength to carry the string noodle of a person that is his flat-mate.

It helps that Leo and Asher have been practically brothers since Leo helped him get away from an abusive household, and then helped him through the trials and tribulations that followed; perks of being in the system. Only, there’s one thing Leo absolutely envies about Asher.

On your 12th birthday, you wake up to find yourself with one eye the normal color, and the other the color of your soulmate’s eyes; and Leo, like the wide majority of people, went from having two brown eyes, to having two brown eyes. Asher, on the other hand, has one eye a dark hard to spot green, and the other dark brown with a ring of sky blue around the pupil; which is actually ridiculous, and Leo doesn’t know how he got tangled with someone who’s soulmate has such weird eyes.

The thing is, because Asher has such clearly dis-paring eyes, he has a much clearer chance of, not only finding his soulmate, but actually realizing he has found them. Leo does not share that luxury

He’s reached the point where he sometimes thinks maybe his left eye is a little darker than his right, a brown less red and more yellow, etcetera. But he knows he could’ve easily crossed paths with his soulmate already, and never have noticed.

Which would be oh so fitting with Leo’s general experiences with romance; though he supposed it’s better like this, a lot of his past relationships hadn’t been all that enthused about Leo’s work.

He has an early dinner, lazes about for like half an hour, does stretches for another half an hour, takes a quick shower, and then drives to work. Reyna welcomes him at the worker entrance, expression soft; they had a rocky start due to similarly mismatched eyes, but have since become friends, and Leo trusts her with his safety, which is why she’s at the backdoor.

“Boss left you a gift in your changing room”

Leo arches an eyebrow.

“What’s the occasion?”

Reyna makes a face.

“My brother decided to visit”

Leo frowns.  
“The one you said works odd hours, and has a weird pull on critics?”

The face tightens.

“I don’t have any other brothers”

Leo whistles, nodding.

“I’ll steer clear without alerting Jason, don’t worry”

Reyna smiles warmly.

“I trust you”

Jupiter’s Moons was, frankly speaking, a step above the normal clubs Nico had becomes accustomed to frequenting for the sake of his job; if only because it wasn’t packed with people, and the music volume was a little kinder on his ears. He may also be a little inclined to agree with his target’s taste, because the performances were captivating; only Nico had a job, and he was nothing if not professional.

It helped that Reyna worked here, and that Jason owned the place, because it meant Nico didn’t have to worry about paying his way in; only on not leaving an absolute mess on his way out. If he was efficient and clean, he might even get to enjoy the show. A soft sultry song accompanies him as he makes his way to the bar, where Piper was prepping some drinks for a waiter to take; because it was a multiple tables type of place, and thus waiters were something that could happen.

It’d be a good vantage point, and make sense for Nico to stay at seeing as he was alone; Piper offered him a Cheshire grin as he settled on a barstool, ushering the waiter away with the finished drinks.

“Finally gave under Jason’s prodding?”

Nico shrugs because it’s a good an excuse as any, and he can’t exactly say what he’s really doing there.

“Figured he’d shut up if I came”

Piper laughs, sliding him a glass of black beer and a small plate of chips; Nico takes a look around, noting that he’s one of the first people here, and has managed to get a seat with a direct line of sight to the table he knows his mark will be occupying. He generally didn’t have such luxuries.

To point with the information Nico was provided, the guy arrives exactly five minutes before the first act, and orders a drink just as the music starts; the bar changes things every once in a while so it’s not a fixation with a dancer that keeps the guy on schedule, it’s what he does as the first number ends. There’ll be a small window between those two actions, a handful of minutes where the guy would be isolated and vulnerable; that was what Nico was here for.

He allowed himself a glance at the number on stage, just momentarily, and almost gets magnetized to the smallish figure making rounds around the pole like it was the easiest thing; they were dressed light and provocative, and were as vexing as an open flame, and another day Nico would indulge his moth like urge to get a closer look. However, he is nothing if not professional, so he slides his eyes right back to his target, just in time for a change in song and a movement; particularly, the guy standing up, signaling it was go time.

Leo finishes his act just in time for his phone to go off, the number belongs to the hospital Asher interns at, which is already making him nervous, what the voice on the other end says to him sends him into a cold sort of panic. He powerwalks all the way through the backstage, and out the door, uncaring of any sense, stands in front of Reyna with his phone still in hand and notes someone at her side but pays them no mind.

“I need you to find someone to cover me”

Reyna raises an eyebrow, Leo needs to go now, so he pushes.

“I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t an emergency, you know that”

Reyna stares at him for a moment before she sighs and nods.

“I got you”

Leo offers her his best grateful smile and decides he’ll bring her those sugar cookies she likes so much tomorrow; his eyes meet with the stranger at her side for a split of a second before Leo’s gunning for his car and then driving away. He doesn’t think about it, doesn’t even check, and wouldn’t notice if he did, but his eyes change color in the rearview mirror of the car.

Brown eyes, for brown eyes.

The part of soulmates no one tells you, is that they’re easy to miss, and even easier to let slip away entirely. Leo has no reason to think anything special of the stranger he saw that night; and Nico has no reason to think about the dancer who left in enough of a hurry to still be wearing work clothes.

And they have no reason to seek each other out after that night.


	5. Shared skin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I like this little back and forth I set up, it lets me have some sort of order for which AU I’m using. This is actually one of my favorite soulmate AUs, wherein anything you write on your skin shows in your soulmate’s. I thought using this one with cannon would be interesting given Nico’s backstory.

When Nico was really young, he used to be both fascinated and jealous of the way Bianca’s skin would burst to life with words sometimes, his own remaining bare through the years. It wasn’t until the Lotus Hotel that he got any sort of sign from his soulmate, it came one night in the shape of a shaky drawing of a star on his right wrist, right over Nico’s pulse point; small and simple.

It took Nico seconds to show Bianca, and then she got him a pen to respond with.

Nico’s soulmate, it turned out, was much better at drawing other things, such as bolts, and gears, and tools; but if Nico was lucky he’d also get a few numbers, or illegible words. And they liked to answer to any and all drawings Nico sent back with little smiley faces; so Nico had been practicing, so that he could maybe get something more.

And then, one day, he sees a cool monster in one of his mythomagic cards, and tries to copy it; he does this on pieces of paper he steals from all over the hotel, so that when he finally puts it on his skin it comes out perfect. Only, as he’s stealing yet another piece of paper, he feels the now familiar tingle on his skin.

He doesn’t know it when he looks down, but this will be the only time during his stay at the hotel were both his and his soulmate’s timelines are perfectly in sync.

‘are you mad at me?’

Simple, steady imprint, the letters loop weirdly and yet they’re easier to read than any other letter Nico’s ever seen. He must have lost track of time, it’s hard to tell the days when you spend most of the time inside; but he doesn’t want to ruin the surprise, so he tells a little half-lie.

‘busy’

For the first time, the answer is immediate.

‘I’m bothering you?’

Nico feels something tighten in his chest at those words, he answers almost desperately.

‘never’

He expects the smiley face, or maybe even a teasing comment, instead he feels the tingle on his left wrist, right above his pulse-point, and watches, transfixed as a small, shaky heart takes shape. They don’t write anything else, but Nico feels his resolve to get this perfect strengthen tenfold; and so he sets back to work, stealing glimpses at his arms every once in a while, and running his finger over the heart.

A lot happens after, but that heart keeps appearing there, even after Nico’s soulmate confesses to being primarily left handed; but as Nico and Bianca go from the hotel to Westover Hall, the heart finally moves, this time to right beneath his left heel. As it does Nico also gains something else, as though his soulmate is trying to compensate, two letters that serve as a signature, the closest to a name either can get before they reach the right age: ‘LV’.

Westover Hall had a strict code when it came to what could and couldn’t be shown, mainly they were against soulmates for whatever reason, or at least didn’t allow their students to have writing in their arms, even if it wasn’t their own. To Nico’s incredible luck, it was pretty easy to convince LV to move the drawing exchange into their legs; actually, he contacts Nico a lot more often now, gifting Nico with half-finished machines, and more numbers, and even a few comments on Nico’s drawings.

And they’ve had actual conversation too! He discovered LV was dyslexic, and bilingual, thus why he’d been wary to write before. Nico told him he was bilingual too, which promoted an exchange in their respective languages; and now, sometimes there would be something in Spanish under his drawings.

He also learned a little through trial and error, such as the fact that LV had a fondness for dragons and crows; and they either disliked or were scared of fire. Nico had only made that mistake once, and had tried apologizing by cheering LV up, which was how he learned they liked puns with wordplay; and they’re very funny whenever they do attempt writing.

The more he learns, the easier it is for Nico to fall for them, and in turn to seek more information, sharing his own in the process; to allow his soulmate to become important to him. And this connection will save him.

When he loses Bianca.

When people at camp treat him like an outsider.

When he’s struggling to survive while the world goes to war without knowing.

And when it’s over and Camp Half-blood doesn’t change despite Nico having proven his loyalty and some.

He’s suspicious when his soulmate’s attitude towards him changes one day without warning, as though Nico’s a stranger to them; or maybe he’s hopeful, that they’re like him, that he’ll be able to be with them properly.

Hopeful that he’ll actually meet _him_.

There’s also that, though Nico doesn’t know how to feel about liking someone other than his soulmate, or what it says about him; even if it grants him this knowledge. Instead, he settles on wondering how a meeting would happen, what LV would be like, and whether Nico would be able to recognize _him_ when it happens.

In the end, the meeting is rushed, and the actual revelation is accidental, and the entire situation is awkward; but Nico’s soulmate, Leo Valdez, is less what he shows people, and more what he’s shared with him. So eventually, they manage to settle back into the easy back and forth they had on their skin, only this time is spoken; and, ok, it’s still somewhat awkward, but Leo’s smiling giddily at him, and Nico’s sure he’s somewhat reciprocating.

They don’t have the time for a date, what with the end of the world threatening to happen, but Leo still makes sure to talk to him at least once a day in between things. And when Nico falls to the pit, he becomes his saving grace, keeping him just a little saner, and lot more focused on getting out; and then focused on staying alive when he’s inside the jar.

He’s not the first face he sees when he’s freed, but he makes sure Nico gets better, even offering his bed when the nightmares become too powerful to deal with; and Nico loves him for it, more than he can put in words, so he doesn’t.

Instead, Nico draws him something, and then another thing, and then another, until Leo’s legs are covered in dragons, and crows, and weapons. Leo, who is still protective of their connection and will probably always be, answers a lot more subtly; the same small heart as that time back in the Lotus hotel, exactly in the center of his left wrist, on the inner side where one can feel the pulse of a person.

They still have friends to save, a prophecy to fulfil, a war to win.

But for now, this, their connection settling and shaping into something certain, is enough for them.


	6. Countdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is actually based on a really old story concept I had but never sat down to write, for which I couldn’t really think much beyond the meeting; so it fit the criteria for this collection. Wanted to try something a little different. What was the timer’s start up number challenge! Hint, Nico’s timer is one year shorter than Leo’s.   
> AU: Everyone is born with a timer that counts down to the moment they’ll meet their soulmate. (no camp, no one’s a demigod, Nico and Leo are very similar, and that’s not always a good thing)

It’s a little weird how little can change in 30 minutes, how little can happen for how long a stretch of time half-an-hour can be. It’s also, weirdly, reassuring; but that’s neither here nor there.

It starts with a routinely timer check, a rush to duck down into the nearest hiding spot. Because he’s a monster who can only hurt those who love him.

Leo wants nothing less than to add yet another person to _that_ ever-growing list.

It also starts with a deep black wristband over the timer, obscuring and muffling the numbers, as he pushes on with his day like normal; no intention of even paying it attention. Because he has a long history of pushing people away, and only two people have ever stuck around, and one of them is his sister.

Nico has no reason to think his soulmate will be a different story.

But despite their protests and claims, there still exists a part of them that hopes for the promised perfection of the bond; and they both know fate is stronger than them. And it is.

It is because out of all places, Leo ducks into the music store Nico works part-time on, and he tries to make himself look interested, only he does actually find something that interests him; and he’s weighting the pros and cons of buying it, and making a sweep of the floor, and then returning to the item in question.

That might not seem like something that should take 30 minutes, and it doesn’t, it takes only 7, but it had taken him 9 to pick the store and get inside, 11 to get out of the subway and into the open street; and it takes only three minutes to cross the distance between the item and the counter. But if one wanted to be exact to the timer, and go further back than that, it had taken 6 minutes to get out the subway cart, 20 minutes to reach the stop, 3 to get in the subway cart, 8 to get in the subway, 2 to get to the station from his own work in the garage, where he’d been working for 4 years, one less than the time he’d been living in this city, where he settled after 13 years of running and surviving, something he started at 8 after the fire that took everything from him.

Nico is a different similar story, one that started a little later, at 12 when he lost a sister, he stopped looking for his soulmate in the flurry of everything, the fear, and exhaustion, and confusion, and anger, and pain. He finds Hazel at 14 and meets Reyna later that same year, and things get a little easier, but Nico still ignores it, still pushes it away, like he does everyone who isn’t them.

It’s not a conscious thing, despite what many believe he’s not actually fond of isolation, it’s just that he needs time alone more often than other people, and warms up slower, and doesn’t like excessive contact, and he reacts badly to loud noises, and sudden closeness, like aggressively bad. So people don’t stay, because Nico is difficult, and depressing, and too much.

He covers the timer, doesn’t engage in conversations about soulmates, doesn’t engage at all, does his work politely and monotone, like a robot, and doesn’t think about it.

He’s intrigued by the boy who does circles in the shop before finally grabbing the recorder he’d been clearly eyeing. Nico wonder what it’ll be used for, comes up for at least five different scenarios behind the purchase before the boy reaches him and the low humming of the store’s radio is shattered by harmonious beeping.

There’s a moment of stillness, before Leo looks at his wrist to find that yes, it has dropped to cero, and then watches as the store clerk pulls down a wristband to look at the timer that Leo supposes matches his. And then they stare at each other.

Store clerk, Nico according to his name tag, is the one to break the silence.

“So, uh, that’ll be $33,19”

The wave of relief Leo feels is wild, like actually, legitimately, he’s stupidly glad for this??? He pulls out his wallet, pays the guy a little extra if only for… whatever that is happening right now.

“Keep the change”

The guy raises an eyebrow, but bags the voice recorder for Leo and says nothing, so Leo simply smiles gratefully and leaves.

So yeah, very little changes in 30 minutes, other than a weird feeling of gratefulness for their respective soulmates for not pushing. It’s a wondrous thing, really.


	7. Glowing chest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There’s a comic on this one, but it’s a little complicated to point what triggers the connection, so I’m going with first contact again. Thus, in this au, upon first contact with your soulmate, your chest glows.
> 
> You consider the fact that Nico canonically wound up in lot of weird places while working on his shadow travel, and you consider the fact that Leo spent most of his life on the streets, or with the worst families the system could find him; and suddenly, the idea that they might’ve crossed paths before cannon isn’t all that farfetched. So, 5 times Leo and Nico meet, and the one time they find they’re soulmates.

Nico wakes up dizzy and disoriented, which has been becoming a common occurrence as of late, one he’s tried to complain about only to be told his powers are like a muscle, and the more he uses them the easier they’ll be to use. The place he’s in is unfamiliar, and clearly abandoned, but there’s a roof over his head, and plenty of shadows from the setting sun, and there’s a faded safety poster on a nearby wall that’s in English; so it’s not the worse place Nico has wound up in.

The difference comes in something a lot more mundane than that, a little further away, pouring the contents of a kettle into two Styrofoam containers, is a boy around Nico’s age.

The boy sets the kettle down after a while, to pull out a board out of seemingly nowhere, and place that atop the containers, before looking Nico’s way.

“Oh, you’re awake”

Nico supposes he should’ve expected something like this to happen eventually, this being a stranger taking pity on his unconscious self and moving him somewhere ‘safer’. The boy doesn’t seem to mind his unresponsiveness, simply smiling.

“These will be done in just a few”

There’s a war being raged outside of this abandoned building, and monsters probably approaching; but there’s something about the stranger that calls to Nico, or maybe it’s the smell of whatever he’s cooking. So he stays, and learns the things are called instant-ramen, and the stranger is called Leo.

The second time he sees Leo, it’s a little ways away from the main entrance to the Underworld, this time, the boy takes him to an actual house, furnished and everything, tells him to be extra quiet, and guides him through stitching his wounds without speaking or touching Nico at any point. It’s more like a mental push, eyes following Nico’s movements to the second, and telling him when he’s about to screw up.

By the time Nico’s done with the worst of them, the front door opens with a loud bang, and he watches as Leo’s entire body tenses; and despite this, he smiles at Nico and ushers him out of the kitchen they’d been in through a back door, and through a backyard with a big tree.

“I won’t look”

His voice is soft, hushed, and he turns so his back is facing Nico, but he’s looking at the house, where a voice is getting louder by the second. But before Nico can do anything, Leo shoot off, managing to take the man with him.

“Go fantasmin! I’ll be fine”

Something tells Nico to trust the boy, so he does.

The third time is a little shorter, Leo pushes him into an alleyway, effectively hiding them from the monster that’d been chasing Nico, and whoever was chasing Leo. He gives Nico a broad grin, eyes crazed, something dangerous about his expression.

“Ok, let’s bounce, you head north, I head south, and we meet on the other side”

And Nico feels something climb to his throat and try to asphyxiate him, so he gives Leo his most serious look, noting, suddenly, that the boy is a smidge taller than him; and that bothers him for some reason.

“No, we meet next time”

Leo moves sharply away, as though pushed, looking at Nico for a moment before he lets out a bark of a laugh, and finally smiles at Nico properly.

“You’re on fantasmin!”

The fourth time, Nico wakes up on an actual bed, in a room full of them, there are little things here and there, all which point to those beds being occupied. The door to the room opens with the sound of conversation, which is cut with a loud gasp, and suddenly Nico is surrounded by a group of children.

They all rapid-fire questions at him, most of which he answers only half-honestly, or not at all; and then another figure enters the room.

“That’s enough little tykes, let him breath”

Nico feels a worrying rush of relief as he recognizes that voice, and watches as the kids let out a complaining sound, but all obediently move away. Finally, Leo comes into Nico’s view; somehow looking both better and worse than when Nico last saw him.

“We've got to stop meeting like this”

Nico sighs, closing his eyes for a moment, allowing himself to enjoy the moment of peace he’s come to associate with being within the vicinity of Leo; before he has to face the reality of his split blood again. To add to his ever growing list of things that make him stand out to Nico, Leo stays quiet during this entire thing, only making noise to sit at the bed directly next to Nico’s; and only speaking again when Nico opens his eyes.

“So, Casper, how long till you disappear again?”

It occurs to him, as tries to process the question, that he’s never introduced himself to Leo.

“It’s Nico”

Leo simply smiles at him softly, a little like he’s exhausted, which given the dark shadows under his eyes, is probably a correct assessment.

“That doesn’t answer my question”

Nico feels particularly seen for some reason, and there’s an urge to just, stick with Leo; but he decides to be honest instead, he owes Leo that much.

“Five more minutes”

Leo nods sharply, and then gets back up to turn off the lights in the room; and it’s only then that Nico realizes how late it is.

The fifth time is different in the sense that they don’t really meet, and it lasts all of five minutes, in which Nico sees Leo from afar, recognizes who he is, and then watches as he disappears into thin air. And as impactful as that entire experience is, it helps Nico come to a few realizations.

Firstly, Percy had not disappeared just because, and there’s probably a third demigod vanishing somewhere else if they haven’t already. Secondly, Leo is clearly a half-blood, which, actually, explains a lot of things when Nico thinks back to their previous encounters.

Thirdly, and possibly most urgent, Leo’s impossibly become someone important to Nico, and he surprises himself with how ready he is to fight if it means finding him. That one sends him into a bit of a spiral, where Nico over-analyses every interaction he’s had with Leo for a response on what the boy thinks of him.

In the end, he decides to start searching, he can worry about Leo and whatever exists between them later.

Nico thinks, realistically, that he shouldn’t be held accountable for forgetting about soulmates and how they worked; considering, you know, his everything. But that’s not the point of this, the point is that Nico found Percy at camp Jupiter, with only the faintest memory of him, so he had little to no hope on Leo even having that much; only that’s not what happened.

He’d popped into camp to tell Anabeth and the others about the roman camp, without letting them in on the fact that he’d known about it for a while now, as one does. And there he was, gleaming under the reddish claim of Hephaestus, hair set ablaze before it was quickly stifled in a clear show of expertise; though since Nico remembered his first encounter with Leo, the fire wasn’t all that surprising.

What was surprising, however, was how, as Leo’s eyes scanned the crowd in clear panic, and settled on him, his entire posture changed. Then he was moving, all but staggering in his direction, and Nico found himself matching him step for step, heart pounding at his chest.

They stop at a mid-point, world forgotten, closer than really necessary; and Leo stares at Nico with a mix of wonder, and disbelief, and something else Nico can't pin down.

“I… can I...?”

Nico nods instantly, and mentally berates himself, but it doesn’t matter because Leo reaches out and just places his hand softly on Nico’s face, like he’s something precious; and then they’re glowing.

That, is the moment Nico’s mind picks to remind him that soulmates are a thing, a thing that exists, and that finding them is not a subtle thing; but also, Leo being his soulmate? Explains why their paths have crossed so consistently, and-

The glow simmers, having fulfilled its purpose, and Leo’s still touching Nico, only his hand is now cradling Nico’s face, a soft smile on his lips.

“Hey fantasmin”

And Nico is very, very lucky, but he also needs to get them away from the crowd, so he reaches out for Leo’s hand as obviously as he can and manages to get his voice working.

“Hold on”

Leo’s hands grip his own, as he gives him a small subtle nod, and Nico calls the shadows to take the two of them. They have a lot to talk about, and this is not the place to do it; Nico only takes them as far as the Hades cabin, on the account that he still has to talk to Anabeth and such, but privacy is privacy.


	8. String of fate.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Woot! Woot! Time for the original TM soulmate au!  
> In the off chance you don’t know about this, there’s this belief that people who are meant to be together are tied by an invisible string, called ‘the string of fate’, this string can stretch, shorten, and move any which way without ever tangling, it ties around your pinkie and is often depicted red. In this au, people can actually see them, and utilize them to find their soulmate.  
> Do you ever come up with a fantasy surname for the human!version of a god? Used Greek and such.

It’s a little weird, the tendency things have to work themselves out in the most unexpected of ways, this is a thought shared between Nico and Leo as they face the awestruck expression on Pyra’s face. And maybe there’s need to go a little further back for the sake of coherency, or a lot.

They met purely by chance when they were both teenagers, freshly so too on Nico’s part, at a fair Hazel had nearly dragged Nico to. He’d had his entire left forearm deep into the controller for one of the rides, wrench in mouth, when Nico called him out; which, despite Leo’s intentions, was the right call as he didn’t have the permission to be messing with any fair equipment, no matter his skill.

He did manage to finish fixing the ride before any of the workers got to them, and went as far as to wink at Nico as he scurried away, waving his wrench in the air like some sort of salute.

It wasn’t until later that year, when Nico joined high-school, that he saw the guy again, this time being able to get a name; not that Nico had cared, and wouldn’t for a time. But eventually, and Nico supposed by now inevitably, Leo proved himself to be worth the effort and much more; by the time Nico entered college, he could count him as one of his best friends.

This meant, of course, that Leo became a common sight in the Kólasi household; and was he ever glad Hazel and him were allowed to keep their mothers’ surnames. It also meant that Nico’s family were all very much familiar with him; which is what makes this particular situation a lot weirder.

Here’s the other half of the context of why this event stands out:

The way the world works, every person is born with a red string tied to their pinkie, guiding them to their soulmate, it’s a magical sort of thing, being able to stretch as far, and shrink as much as was necessary, never once tangling. But they’ve become such a common sight, that most people simply ignore them unless they’re looking to complete the connection.

So while it’s not impossible to miss an encounter with one’s soulmate, it’s simply ridiculous, that it’s taken this long, and someone else pointing it out, for Leo and Nico to realize they’re tied to one another.

Particularly, and this is important, when Nico has been harboring a crush on Leo for a whopping two years! And Leo has been practically in love with Nico basically since he first met him.

The cherry on this mind-blowing cake, of course, is the fact that they didn’t find out in some moment of shared intimacy where they finally paid attention to the other’s hands; but rather, Pyra, someone else, is the one that realized, gasping loudly and pointing avidly while beaming.

Nico and Leo look at each other, then back at her, then back at each other, before Leo snatched Nico’s hands into his, and gives Pyra an entire look.

“I’m gonna steal your cousin for like an hour, don’t look for us”

And then he drags both of them away.

The only thing there’s really to discuss is that neither of them have noticed the other’s feelings, and then Leo derails them into trying to figure out, if that ignorance is what made it so they couldn’t see the strings. It’s not an intense moment, because it doesn’t have to be, actually, it’s more relieving than anything else, getting to speak their hearts and have those things returned in kind.

There is, obviously, the awkward bit where they make sense of what they are now, and a date is planned, other such matters are agreed on. But they are soulmates, and they have all the time in the world.


	9. First and Last words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "[there, nestled against his pulse](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1058306)" is possibly one of my favorite fanfic series, so this is somewhat inspired by it; but also, I took a lot of liberties.
> 
> For those of you who don’t know, in this AU you are born with the first words your soulmate will say to you in one arm, and the last on the other. The HOO canon makes this one a little more interesting.

Nico di Angelo had always been a little wary of showing his soul marks, having grown in a time where such things were considered private, and being part of the people whose soul marks were in different languages. The real problem, was that they were in two entirely different languages, the right a short and simple ‘Bonito’ that was easy enough to translate, the left an ‘I’ll come back to you’, but for some reason only Bianca and Nico could read it.

Once they were moved to Westover Hall, Nico tried asking one of the nuns about it, because religious people always knew about weird languages, and was told it was ancient Greek. The nun had a sad expression as she said it, clearly able to read it like Nico and Bianca, which made his chest hurt; so he never showed it again after that.

Leo thinks it’s very on track that his soul marks are like this, the fact that both of them are somehow only readable by him makes it so nobody knows what the right one says, but the left one is just Leo’s name in a different alphabet. He took to hiding them both to save himself the pitying looks he gets over that, or worse, the accusations.

Leo doesn’t know what to make of it, or the one in his right he can read despite the foreign alphabet, a simple ‘and, you are?’ that felt so normal, so easy to mistake. It frustrates him to no end, so he covers both, out of spite… for the words, though Leo tries to push the idea of a soulmate aside, given his record, it doesn’t work.

Things get harder before they get easier, that’s something they have in common, Leo is stripped of his memory, thrown into an entire new world most people have no idea exists, and is pushed to fight with every last of his resources, even the ones he despises. So forgive him for not giving soulmates a second thought, particularly now that he knows his words to be in Ancient Greek, and gets to hear them so often; he can’t exactly afford to be swooning after every someone that asks who he is.

But they get to the supposed safe heaven that is Camp Half-Blood, and there’s the claiming, and the first prophecy Leo will hear, and discussion abound, and then _he_ appears, out of a shadow. He’s dressed in near full-black sans the aviator jacket, with pale skin, dark eyes, and dark hair that tuffs up like baby bat wings; and Leo is tired, overwhelmed, and no longer in control of his mouth.

“Bonito”

The boy, for he’s clearly younger than Leo, arches an eyebrow at him.

“And, you are?”

Leo splutters, suddenly aware that he said that out loud, in Spanish, to a crowd of demigods from all over America who have Ancient Greek as their common language. He thinks he might be smoking a little; luckily, Piper immediately jumps in.

“Sorry about Leo, first day as demigod”

And then he’s being tugged away, but the boy’s eyes follow him.

Nico doesn’t know what to make of the boy who might be his soulmate, and how even though he was properly introduced to who Nico was, still said the word imprinted on Nico’s wrist. For the first time since realizing he’s a demigod, and everything that comes with that, Nico wants to take a second look at his soulmate marks.

Part of it has to do with the doubt he still has about whether or not Leo and him are soulmates, which is stupid because Leo hides his marks too and without those there will always be a doubt; the other part has to do with Nico’s tendency to self-inflicted suffering. So he resists the urge for as long as he can.

Until he’s stuck in the pit, and is so desperate for something good, anything good, that he rips the ribbons with his teeth and stares.

‘Bonito’, says his right, simple and unassuming, nothing to point at the breathless tone Leo had said it in, or the way his voice curled around the letters like it was meant for them. It makes him smile, in spite of himself.

‘I’ll come back to you’, says his left, and the prophecy of the seven rings in the back of Nico’s head, and it burns the same way it did when said prophecy was spoken out loud. He’s gonna lose his soulmate to this war, that much he’s sure of, so he doesn’t have the time to be stuck here; that resolve gets him through the next arm of his trip, but he’s caught before he can go any further.

When Nico wakes up again, actually fully wakes up, he’s in an infirmary room, with Hazel sleeping on a chair at his right.

He can’t exactly move, due to how heavy his body feels, so he just watches as two people enter the room; one is a guy he’s seen around Hazel the few times he visited camp Jupiter, the other is Nico’s soulmate. They’re deep in hushed conversation, which allows Nico to look at them as they approach without them really noticing.

“Do I look like I can lift a sleeping person?”

Frank winces and shakes his head, Leo pats his back with a smile, and then he turns and his eyes find Nico. The smile softens into a tentative sort of look, Frank looks from one to the other in quick succession before he flushes and quietly moves to take Hazel and carry her away.

“You’re awake”

Nico can’t stop looking at him, taking in every detail for some sort of sign of their connection; that’s not how things work, because otherwise they’d have more than just words tattooed on their skin. Leo starts talking, voice a soft sort of noise that makes something inside Nico turn warm; or maybe it’s just his general presence.

“We’re soulmates”

Leo doesn’t look particularly startled, despite the fact that Nico absolutely cut him mid-way through a sentence. He simply gives him a different sort of smile, small, and tentative, and real; and something tells Nico that this a rare sight from him.

“Did I really call you bonito when we met?”

Nico nods, Leo flushes, smoke trailing from his hair.

“Ok then, you ever played 21 questions?”

They don’t really have much in common taste wise, or personality wise, but as they come to know the other better, they realize they are very similar despite that. It’s a weird sort of dynamic, but it works, even as Nico leaves with Reyna and Coach Hedge.

It happens through Iris message, right before they make the last jump to get to Camp Half-blood, when they’re seconds away from the last stand. Leo calls to warn them about Gaea rising, with a snide comment about Percy under his breath.

And then he starts talking about the plan for dealing with Gaea, and the part Reyna will have to play in it, and the way he talks to her makes Nico think something happened between them. But before he can think about that too much, Leo is looking at him and talking about the death cure, and Jason, and how he knows it’s not gonna work.

“What are you planning?”

Leo smiles, Nico feels dread rise in seconds.

“Just a little storm and fire, if we can get there in time”

He says the last part out loud, and some muffled voice answers him; but Nico’s ears are already ringing, and the ground beneath him is starting to shake. Leo turns to him, the message trembling like it’s about to end around him, and he gives Nico one of his rare honest smiles.

“I’ll come back to you”

Reyna is cursing, sword already drawn, Nico heaves.

“Leo!”

The message goes, and he screams turning to Reyna and the statue and the satyr, and gathering his sudden anger, he calls on the shadows.

He doesn’t think about it, not until the explosion forces him to, the words ‘a promise to keep with a dying breath’ resound into his head, and then his arms start burning. He collapses into the ground at the same time Festus starts swirling downwards, and he thinks he hears Will calling for him, and then the burning stops.

He looks in panic, at the new words in his skin, even as the war comes to climax around him, and the fire around Festus gets put out. Ancient Greek on both sides.

‘Hello beautiful’ says the right.

‘I love you too’ says the left. 

“Nico”

Will is tugging at him, trying to get him up, and towards the fallen dragon; and Nico supposes he has to, so he lets himself be pulled. Only something changes in the air, and something moves behind Festus’ curled form; and suddenly Nico is running.

Leo comes out from behind the dragon, clothes singed, eyes disoriented, hair smoking, and reeking of death. He levels Nico with a breathless sort of smile, stumbling as he tries to step forward; Nico catches him on instinct.

“Hello beautiful”

Nico shakes him in place, feeling his eyes stinging.

“You’re such an ass”

And then, because he can’t believe this is happening, he kisses Leo with all his pent up emotion; and hears a soft chuckle from his soulmate before he’s kissed back.


	10. Switched bodies.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ah, yes, the freaky Friday soulmate au, in which at a certain age (in this case 21) you wake up in your soulmate’s body, and if you have an age gap it happens when the younger person reaches that age. In which I invite you all to think of babysitters from the viewpoint of a child; because that is something I can do.  
> No gods, no powers, childhood friends’ au.

Nico was very young when they moved to Los Angeles, big enough that he could talk in full sentences and know what he was saying, but still needing someone to accompany him if he wanted to go anywhere. It means sometimes a stranger will come to the house to watch him and Bianca while his mom does whatever adults do when they leave their kids home with strangers.

Only, that’s been happening less in this new city, and when it does, it’s not some weird old lady who doesn’t let Nico play mythomagic because ‘it’s a devil’s game’ or something, it’s Ms. Valdez from three doors down, who comes with her son.

Her son who’s closer to Bianca in age than he is with Nico, so she insists he play with her, a boy named Leo who can never seem to stay still. But sometimes they’ll play mythomagic, and Leo always wins against Bianca but never against Nico, though Nico was convinced he was losing on purpose, like big kids did when playing with little kids. 

Because Leo was very smart, and had a habit of indulging Nico, which he wasn’t sure he liked, because while being able to get anything is good, the fact that Leo considered him a little kid didn’t sit right with Nico. Which, no duh, why would he want to be treated like a kid? Much less by someone only two years older than him.

Or he thinks that’s what’s happening, until the day some mean guy from school breaks one of Nico’s collection figures, and instead of trying to soothe Nico the way Bianca does, Leo simply asks for the pieces, and has the thing fixed in what seems like seconds. He tells Nico the guys are jealous because they’re boring and Nico isn’t, and he shouldn’t pay them any mind, because then they’d be interesting, and if they act mean to him they don’t deserve that.

And that’s probably about the time Nico develops a crush on him, to be perfectly honest.

Teen-hood comes with a lot of tragedy, like actual years of nothing but loss for both of them, until all they have left of their childhood is each other. It brings them closer together, and makes them protective of the other, staying side by side even through the few fights that arise in the process.

Eventually, their respective fathers find them, take custody, and put them in the same weird all year institute. And that’s when things get a little more complicated.

Because Leo knows how to be charming, how to be social, he tells jokes, and swings with the punches with an ease that leaves others reeling. In less than a week Leo’s made himself a place amongst the people here, he’s made friends.

Nico isn’t as lucky, the only people who willingly talk to him are, his newly-discovered half-sister, her maybe-boyfriend, and Leo. Granted, he’s hasn’t been the most approachable, and honestly, the lack of friends doesn’t actually bother him all that much.

What worried Nico is that he’ll lose the one person he has left, not to his new friends, who while they do avoid Nico have yet to try separating them, but rather to one of the many girls he flirts with. Like, one of them is going to see through the terrible pickup lines, or Leo’s gonna be his usual kind self, and Nico will have to watch it happen and pretend like he isn’t being eviscerated.

There’s no way he’ll be able to keep quiet, which would ruin everything they’ve built over the years, and then Leo would never talk to him again. And that’s…

Beyond the longing Nico has for them to be together romantically, Leo is his best friends, the only soul to know everything about him. Nico can’t lose him.

But he will.

Nico is 12 when he learns about soulmates, about how at 21 he’ll wake up in someone else’s body, and that’ll be it. He’s 15 when he comes to terms fully with his sexuality and the fact that he’s headed towards heartbreak.

He’s 16 when he watches Leo graduate, and leave for college, fearing that it’s the beginning of the end for them.

It isn’t, technically, because Leo keeps in contact almost stubbornly, but in some ways it is. It is because they stop seeing each other as often, because the thing he’s been fearing happens. Leo introduces him to Calypso during a video call, which is bad because these are important to Nico and he made a point of not inviting Hazel, though he could given she’s also Leo’s friend; but it’s also good because Nico can excuse himself much easier when Leo says the word ‘girlfriend’.

Nico pulls away after that, tries and tries to get over it, to move on, because he doesn’t want to face the reality that he’s losing him. It’s too weeks before his own graduation that Leo wrecks his little attempt by driving all the way back just to scream at him for being an idiot.

And Nico’s so deep in the hole that he tells only a half-truth when confronted, instead of the novel of a declaration that’s been burning at the back of his throat practically since he was old enough to understand attraction for what it was.

He doesn’t lose Leo in the end, and Leo promises he won’t any time soon, despite the fact that he’s still dating Calypso. Nico decides to try dating himself, to both distract himself from the whole thing, and to maybe have one more person in his corner.

He’s not any good at it, though he does wind up having quite a few one-night-stands that are mostly ok, like, he’s yet to have any drunk or unprotected, and he’s like experienced now; more so than Leo despite the age difference, which is amusing until Calypso finds it funny.

The closest he gets to anything romantic, is with one Will Solace, where they go to a few dates, have one conversation about the people on their lives, and promptly realize they are in similar situations. They discover very quickly that while a romantic relationship is probably not the best idea for them, a friendship absolutely is; and now Nico has someone he can complain about Leo with, so long as he hears Will complain about his own crush.

It means, amongst other things, that Nico has an easier time talking to Leo, and they slowly go back to normal. Until the year Leo turns 21.

Nico’s 18, freshly out of high school, signed to a few classes in the community college, and working at a music and instruments shop, he also works as delivery boy for one of the many apps for it, it keeps him busy and gives him an income of sorts. He’s just finished delivering a bag of groceries for this lady who seems to be the only person Nico’s done this for who knows they do more than restaurants, when he gets the call.

He registers the words ‘Leo’ and ‘hospital’ from a panicked-sounding Piper, who’d been with him the previous night for an ‘adult’ celebration, and as a way to make sure Leo’s soulmate didn’t freak out since she was really good at keeping people calm. Nico doesn’t really think about that in the moment, busy as he is disconnecting his phone and kicking his motorcycle into gear, not even stopping to consider the distance, which is just as well, because he crosses literal states in only hours; it’s a miracle he doesn’t get pulled over.

After he gets directed to the waiting area outside Leo’s room, he finds Piper with Jason at her side, who’s holding an ice bag to his chin. He learns two things, firstly Calypso’s soulmate happens to share a birthday with Leo, secondly Leo’s soulmate is apparently younger than him because he’s still himself.

Calypso’s soulmate has to spend the rest of the day in prison, and then much longer once Calypso is back to herself and able to give the police details about the guy. Leo and her break up after because their relationship had been on a thin thread lately and this is the strain that snapped it; it’s a lot more civil than the explanation makes it sound.

Leo tries dating after, but nothing ever sticks, and Nico kind of wishes he would stop, but the good news is that it’s not just girls he dates; Nico’s jealousy is a lot worse towards the boys though. He also doesn’t get a soulmate that year, or the next.

And then it’s Nico’s turn.

Will, and a girl Nico met at the Mythology class he takes for fun called Reyna, drag Nico into a gay bar the day before, which is an entire experience on itself, but Nico manages to return to his apartment, alone, mostly sober, and with all his belongings. He sort of just, collapses into bed.

When he wakes up he’s somewhere familiar and not in tandem, a fact that makes his brain react to not being home a little slower. And then he’s rushing out of the bed, and the room, and finding a bathroom.

Only, the face that greets him in the mirror isn’t his own, it’s a face he knows maybe better than his, has used every chance to stare and remember each part throughfully. Nico just, stays there, in front of the mirror, unblinking, unmoving, because he’s absolutely 100% sure this is all a dream, or hallucination, or something.

Just, there’s no way, not a single way, that he’s really, wholly, truly, in Leo’s body.

No way he’s Leo’s soulmate.

The first notes of a song Nico doesn’t recognize starts ringing on the apartment, he hurries to the source to find Leo’s phone on the small table beside the bed, the phone show’s him a picture of himself, one where he’s lost in a book, one he doesn’t remember Leo taking.

Nico swallows around the knot in his throat and answers the phone.

“Why do you not have a lock on your phone?”

Nico pulls the phone away from him, to corroborate that it says his name with that picture still there. So yes, that is actually what his voice sounds like, weird.

“L-Leo?”

Is that how Leo sounds to himself?

“No, it’s the queen of England!”

Nico lets out a startled laugh.

“Holy shit”

He hears a laugh from the other side of the line, shaky and unpracticed.

“Yeah, oh gods, you sound so weird, I sound so weird!”

He’s smiling, Nico hears it in his voice and that’s, that’s so weird, and the fact that they both use male pronouns makes the whole thing even more confusing.

“We’re soulmates”

It sort of leaves Nico’s mouth on its own, impulsive, and laced with the disbelief he still feels.

“We are, holy shit”

He sounds about as overwhelmed as Nico feels. It makes him brave enough to tell the truth.

“You’re sure I’m not dreaming?”

That makes Leo laugh, which is still so weird to Nico, but makes him feel tingly all over regardless.

“Ok, you need to get me out of class, and I will find Reyna and Will and convince them to drive me there”

He hadn’t considered the fact that Leo’s an engineering student, and Nico would absolutely not be able to follow his classes, because Leo was on his last year of engineering and already starting the masters in mechatronics. Nico isn’t an idiot, so he can admit this much to himself, he’s more of a history person anyway.

“Sure, I can do that”

He also really wants to see Leo, to have physical proof that this is real.

“Great, I’ll hang up now, see you later”

They’ll probably have to have a conversation about this, one where Nico will have to fess up about everything; but for now, he has to figure out how to unlock Leo’s phone.


End file.
